A U.S. Air Force B-52 carries the X-51 Hypersonic Vehicle out to the range for a launch test from Edwards AFB, California in this handout photo provided by the U.S. Air Force on May 1, 2013. The X-51 achieved Mach 5.1 traveling 230 nautical miles in just
IN PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force B-52 carries the X-51 Hypersonic Vehicle out to the range for a launch test from Edwards AFB, California in this handout photo provided by the U.S. Air Force on May 1, 2013. The X-51 achieved Mach 5.1 traveling 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes making this test the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever. Reuters/Bobbi Zapka/USAF

Lockheed Martin has just been instructed by the U.S. Army on Wednesday to upgrade its Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to enable it to deal with hypersonic threats. The contract, worth $78 million, specifically orders the development of advanced missiles that could outmanoeuvre, if not totally knock out, ultrahigh-speed targets that travel 10 times the speed of sound. The U.S. got petrified in 2014 when it saw China test three times its high-tech Wu-14 hypersonic glide vehicle.

Mike Trotsky, a Lockheed vice president for defense missiles and fire control, told Washington Times the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is currently focused on upgrading the Army's Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, so it can precisely deal with a target that has hypersonic threats. Apart from China's Wu-14, Russia and India are likewise working and perfecting their respective hypersonic strike vehicles.

The U.S. would have had performed a test of its own Advanced Hypersonic Weapon in August, but it exploded four seconds after launch from a test range in Alaska. For now, while the U.S. has missile defense sensors and interceptors, these however can hit ballistic missile warheads, provided they travel in predictable flight paths from launch, through space and into ground targets.

Its failed Advanced Hypersonic Weapon was meant to destroy targets anywhere on Earth at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles-an-hour or Mach 5. China's Wu-14, however, with its latest test successfully conducted in December, travels at speeds up to Mach 10, or nearly 8,000 miles per hour. Such speeds, according to the Washington Free Beacon, "create difficult aeronautics and physics challenges for guidance systems and place extreme stress on materials used in construction of the vehicle."

Trotsky said the Missile Defense Agency wants the upgraded THAAD to have a larger booster and an enhanced upper stage. He noted work on the extended-range version has actually been happening for the past 12 to 18 months.

J.D. Hammond, Lockheed's director of command and control battle management systems, said countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to conduct ballistic missile flight tests for the sole purpose of defeating the U.S.' missile defense systems. The Wu-14, for one, was clearly designed as a nuclear delivery vehicle meant to break through U.S. defenses.

Hammond disclosed the company is working on a software that will merge sensor data collected from both space and on the ground, regardless if infrared or radio frequency, to come up with a better sensor for that particular type of threat. "So we're constantly having to stay ahead of the curve so that our systems remain robust against the full range of threats," Doug Graham, Lockheed's vice president for strategic and missile defense systems, told Washington Times.